Friendly Fire

In the early seventies, Miguel, Paulo, Osvaldo and Elói were involved with armed resistance to the military dictatorship in Brazil and they paid the price with arrests and torture. Açao entre amigos tells how events in this period of Brazilian history have left a mark on their lives today. Miguel is the only one who has remained politically active. When he looks at photos taken at a political meeting in Sao Paolo, he thinks he recognises a man who tortured them twenty five years ago. It turns out to be a policeman who was officially declared dead a couple of years ago. When Miguel tells his friends, that evokes very different reactions that bring them into conflict with each other and with themselves. The quest for the face on the photo reveals unsuspected aspects of a period they thought they had put behind them. They have to review their own history.Açao entre amigos is not about the people who found their way into the history books, but focuses consciously on the common people who fought for an ideal they gave everything for. Beto Brant, whose ‘Brazilian western’ Os matadores was screened last year in Rotterdam, tries to trace some of the emotions that still live in this generation: feelings of guilt, loyalty, revenge and memories.